


aurivity

by aurivity



Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: A Lot of Gay, Alternate Universe - Magic, Angst with a Happy Ending, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Happy Ending, M/M, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-10
Updated: 2019-06-10
Packaged: 2020-04-11 16:03:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,158
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19113052
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aurivity/pseuds/aurivity
Summary: Hwang Hyunjin doesn’t believe in magic.Not anymore, at least.+Hyunjin is a college student traveling to Hongjo with his four best friends when a childhood memory that’s been haunting him forever takes him to Aurivity, the other world. There, magicians exist. Magic exists.Seungmin is a magician from the other world. When he meets Hyunjin, he knows something about him that no one else does.Now that they meet again, the two try their best to figure out why Hyunjin was sent to Aurivity and what connection they had.But with something evil lurking in the darkness, nothing is what is seems to be.No one is who they seem to be.





	aurivity

**Author's Note:**

> seungmin doesn’t appear in this chapter! I couldn’t throw him in here so fast, because that wouldn’t have felt right. sorry!

Hwang Hyunjin doesn’t believe in magic.

Not anymore, at least.

When he was young, Hyunjin had longed to stand on the stage in front of him. Magic Night every Wednesday at his local zoo was, undoubtedly, the favorite part of his week. The bright, multicolored lights that sometimes hurt Hyunjin’s eyes, the fancy smoke that somehow smelled like cotton candy, the giant props that had been used countless times. All of it was his favorite. Hyunjin wouldn’t have traded it for anything.

But now, Hyunjin felt nothing but remorse and pain. The bright, multicolored lights made Hyunjin want to break them to tiny pieces. The fancy smoke made Hyunjin scrunch his nose up in distaste. And the giant props were nothing to him but garbage. Everything had lost his magic, it seemed, and Hyunjin only turned his back to it more.

A small seven year old Hyunjin stared at the stage, still in awe. Although it was his 158th time, Hyunjin never got tired of the show. The small plastic chairs the zoo provided were starting to wear down, but Hyunjin didn’t mind. Everything was okay as long as the show kept going. The first magician had quit, and the second magician took over the 43rd time Hyunjin went. Hyunjin had been sad at the time, he had eventually gotten over it. Not by himself, of course. His mom had threatened to never take him again if he didn’t shut up, and there was no way he was risking losing magic.

Today, the magician was performing one of his new tricks. There was a black velvet cloth, a needle and string, and something that looked like an ambulance stretcher on the stage. The green light beat down on the worn out wood, giving it an eerie glow. Props were pushed at the back of the wall, probably stored for later.

The magician smiled, tucking his wand into his back pocket. He clapped two times to gain the audience’s attention before putting his hat on with a whirl. The wooden stage creaked as he walked across it with his heavy shoes. “Welcome to Magic Night at Seoul Zoo. Have you enjoyed your visit so far?” the magician asked, waving his hand. A sly grin was plastered on his face, the same one Hyunjin had seen 115 times.

A chorus of loud screams followed. Hyunjin giggled, trying to scream the loudest. Children were jumping up and down everywhere, and the parents at the back were visibly getting headaches. Hyunjin didn’t care; he screamed louder. One of his goals had always been to get noticed by the magician. It had happened a total of five times, and Hyunjin was desperate for more attention. Especially from the cool teenager that put on the show.

The magician put his hand to his ear in a teasing manner, trying to elicit more reaction from the crowd of children. He was successful; the small bunch roared louder. Hyunjin watched the magician smile and laugh before silence the crowd with one swoop of his hand. “Now,” the magician said, his honey voice echoing against the walls, “How many of you have been here before? Please raise your hands instead of yelling, I can’t make you get quiet again! I need to save my magic for the actual performance.”

Hyunjin smiled meekly. The magician was very funny, he thought. Funnier than his friends. Hyunjin would like to become friends with the magician. It would be fun, he thought. Someone who shared the same passion as him.

Hyunjin shook his head to break his train of thought and raised his hand as high as he could. This was another chance to have the magician notice him. Hyunjin almost stood on top of his chair, but decided against it. He was in the third row, and he thought that would be too excessive.

The magician scanned the faces in the crowd, a small smile on his face. “Oh, yes, I’ve seen many of you here before,” he said. He kept looking through the crowd, tapping a foot. “But...” the magician said, trailing off as he made eye contact with Hyunjin.

Hyunjin stared back in wonder. Was he really looking at him? After a quick glance behind him, Hyunjin decided he was. He stared back at the magician. He had pretty brown eyes, he thought. Trying to read his gaze, Hyunjin strained his eyes. There was a bit of surprise. Maybe it was because he didn’t expect him to come again after the 114th time. There was a lot of excitement. And there was something deeper; something Hyunjin couldn’t place. It looked like he knew something Hyunjin didn’t.

“You in the grey shirt! Please come up to the stage. I think you deserve to be the first volunteer of the night,” the magician said, beckoning Hyunjin with his hand.

Hyunjin’s eyes widened. The first volunteer? Usually the magician reserved that spot for someone special. Maybe he was special, Hyunjin thought, almost crying. His time to be noticed was finally here. His luck was usually sour, Hyunjin noted, but maybe today was different. 

It surely felt different. Something was resonating within him. He felt strange.

Hyunjin finally made it to the stage. The same one he had seen 158 times. His knees felt wobbly as he stood next to the magician. He tried his best to put a smile on his face, but Hyunjin already knew he was too scared and nervous to act normal. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught his mother looking at him with surprise. After all, it was the first time he’d been called to volunteer.

The magician looked down at Hyunjin, the same emotions from earlier swirling in his eyes. “I’ve seen you here a lot of times,” he said. There was something in his voice. Hyunjin decided it wasn’t negative.

Hyunjin barely managed to nod.

“Before I start, can I ask you a question?” the magician asked. He pulled his wand out with his right hand and threw it to his left hand, extending his right hand at the same time. A motion for Hyunjin to hold it.

Hyunjin took the young magician’s hand in his own. Something felt different. Something clicked in that moment. “Yes,” he said.

The whole room seemed to freeze. The magician smiled at him, gently grasping Hyunjin’s hand with his left hand. It was one Hyunjin hadn’t seen yet. It wasn’t sly, it wasn’t teasing, nor was it excited. It was just soft.

“Do you... believe in magic?”

+

Hyunjin groaned, holding his head. He struggled to sit up in his creaky college bed. When he finally managed to sit up, he hit his head against the wooden frame. Checking his analog clock, Hyunjin was distressed to find out he woke up two hours early; his alarm was set for 7:30. 5:22 A.M. was too early for any sane human being to be up on the weekend after finals in their second college year. Anyone who was up at this time was either a crackhead or couldn’t sleep.

“And it’s all because of that stupid dream,” Hyunjin cried, falling back into his pillow. He flipped around, burying his face into it. The soft pillow had been the receiver of his never ending stress multiple times.

From the bed beside him, Jisung yawned. “Y’know, just because you’re salty you can’t get in your childhood magician’s pants doesn’t mean you gotta wake us up,” he said, half asleep. A pillow was thrown Hyunjin’s way.

Hyunjin sat straight up at Jisung’s words. He caught the pillow that Jisung threw at him with a loud groan. His ears turned red, clutching the plush Doraemon pillow. “Ya, you! Han Jisung. Just because I mentioned once, and I repeat, once, that I remember him as being MILDLY attractive does NOT mean I want to fuck him,” Hyunjin said, mentally facepalming. He threw the pillow back, ultimately missing and landing it on the table next to Jisung’s bed. Two half-empty water bottles fell down.

Hyunjin sighed, throwing himself back into his covers. He knew that Jisung was already asleep by the time Hyunjin had finished his sentence.

The same morning, after he had dragged his sorry ass out of bed and tried to look decent, Hyunjin seemed frustrated when he sat down at the breakfast table. He angrily spooned a giant scoop of dry cereal into his mouth, having forgotten to add milk.

His second roommate, Chan, was standing before the stove, trying to arrange the one stack of pancakes he had made fancily. Turning around to look at Hyunjin’s distress, Chan slid Hyunjin’s bowl in front of himself and poured some milk into it before sliding it back. “Having a tough day?” Chan asked. 

Grunting as a thanks, Hyunjin frowned, poking at his knockoff Fruity Loops with distaste. “Even though it’s only 5:45? Yeah, talk about it,” he complained.

Chan laughed, sitting down next to Hyunjin with his plate of pancakes. The knife and fork clanked as he settled the plate down on the wobbly wooden table. “Well, maybe you can make it up with your off brand Fruity Loops,” Chan said through a mouth of food. “Sorry about not making you pancakes, by the way. No one gets up this early so I usually just make some for myself and make breakfast for everyone later.”

Hyunjin shrugged. “I didn’t expect myself to be up this early either. I’m usually the last one up, after all. It’s just... something’s been bothering me,” he said, awkwardly shifting in his seat. The cushion fell off the chair.

Chan raised an eyebrow while pouring syrup on his second pancake. “Is it the magic thing that you’ve been dreaming about?” he asked.

Hyunjin flinched at the word magic. He stirred his soggy leftover cereal, staring into the colored milk. “Yeah. Uh, the... the magic thing,” he mumbled.

Chan scooted closer to Hyunjin, abandoning his food. “Wanna talk about it more? Like, what’s it about?” Chan asked.

Hyunjin frowned briefly, staring at the painting hanging above their stove. After a few seconds, he shifted his attention to the “Live, Laugh, Love,” sign Chan had bought. “Uh...” Hyunjin mumbled, scratching his neck, “It’s complicated.”

“How so?”

“Well, I never get past a certain point. It always ends with the magician dude asking me “Do you believe in magic?” And, of course, I don’t, but I know this is a memory and I’m 110% sure that seven year old Hyunjin would have said yes. So it’s not like I’m blocked from the memory because nothing memorable happened after that. It’s just all so confusing that I haven’t even been able to get a good night’s rest,” Hyunjin said.

Chan nodded slightly, biting his lip anxiously. “Hm. I’m not a dream reader, but I think you have some unsettled business from your childhood that’s haunting you. Try solving it. I don’t know, maybe convince yourself that magic is real for, like, two minutes so you can hear the rest.”

Hyunjin’s eyes widened, as he pushed himself back in the chair. “Unsettled childhood business. Because everything didn’t work out, it came back to bite you in the ass. Huh. Interesting plot development, Hyunjin,” he whispered.

Chan, still tapping his foot on the ground, smiled. It didn’t quite reach his eyes, Hyunjin noted. “Oh well. You’ll solve it somehow, Hyunjin,” he said, checking his phone. 

Hyunjin raised his eyebrows at Chan. He wasn’t usually that big of a pessimist, but something told him he wouldn’t be able to solve this that easily. “Are you really sure I can solve this? Like, it’s not like I can solve my childhood issues now,” he said, getting up to put his empty bowl in the sink. Eventually deciding it was too far, he sat back down.

“You better solve it soon if you want to sleep on the train to Hongjo,” Chan said absentmindedly, staring off in the distance at the potted plants sitting on the windowsill.

Hyunjin straightened in his chair. Right. Hongjo. Chan, Jisung, Changbin, Jeongin, and Hyunjin had been planning a trip to the small resort since the beginning of the semester. Hyunjin shivered at the thought of ruining it because he couldn’t get over some stupid reoccurring dream. He’d much rather get it out if his head and just enjoy the rest of the trip with his best friends. He leaned back in his chair and folded his legs, thinking about the possibilities.

Hyunjin’s eyes darted to the clock on the wall. It read 6:45. Considering that it was 40 minutes late, it was now about 7:25. Two hours until they had to leave for the train station. Hyunjin smiled, getting up and shoving his chair back under the table. “I’m going to start getting my carry on bag ready. Thanks for the help, hyung!” Hyunjin yelled.

“Don’t wake up Jeongin! I don’t want to listen to him complain about how you’re being annoying!”

Hyunjin sighed, walking down the small hallway their dorm room had. He passed Changbin and Chan’s room, trying to decide whether or not to knock on the door to annoy Changbin. Eventually deciding not to, he went to the next room, gingerly opening the door.

Hyunjin’s shared room with Jisung and Jeongin was one word: messy. Hyunjin wasn’t necessarily that dirty, but Jeongin and Jisung tore up the room and turned it into a trash can. Hyunjin grimaced as he tried to step over an empty pizza box.

Hyunjin didn’t mind it too much. After all, it was home. Having a bed was good enough, and living with his best friends was even better.

“Good morning, hyung,” Jeongin said, his voice muffled by the pillow.

Hyunjin jumped in surprise, falling on his own blue bed. “Oh my God, Chan hyung just told me not to wake you up. Don’t bug him or he’ll have my head,” Hyunjin whisper screamed.

Jeongin laughed, sitting upright. “Ah, no. I was up at 6. I just now decided to actually get up,” he said, reassuring Hyunjin.

Hyunjin placed a hand over his heart, giving Jeongin a look of thankfulness. The younger was too preoccupied getting wrapped up in his pink polka dot blanket to notice Hyunjin’s gaze. Jeongin looked quite adorable, Hyunjin admitted. He was particularly fond of Jeongin. He wasn’t sure if he liked him yet, but only time could tell.

Hyunjin tapped his foot on the carpet. It wasn’t only his magic dream distracting him.

Jeongin cut into his thoughts with a yawn. He had finished wrapping himself into a burrito and was now ready to begin talking to Hyunjin. “Question. What time is it?”

“Uh, around 7:35,” Hyunjin answered, checking his phone for confirmation. “More specifically, 7:38.”

“Second question. When do we leave for Hongjo?”

“9:30.”

Jeongin smiled. “Thanks, hyung. I really need to get my shit together.”

Hyunjin threw a pillow at Jeongin. “Language. You really need to get your language together,” he said with an exaggerated gasp.

Unraveling himself, Jeongin fell in a heap of blankets onto his bed. Hyunjin caught his gaze, raising his eyebrows. Jeongin was a questionable but adorable friend. He didn’t know what’d he’d do without him. 

“Picked it up from Changbin hyung,” Jeongin mumbled from under the pillow.

Hyunjin rolled his eyes, trying to detangle himself from his own bed. “Of course. Shouldn’t expect anything else,” he said, faking anger.

“Anyway,” Hyunjin said, getting up and managing to stand on the dirty carpet, “I think you should get ready for Hongjo. I do too, I need to make sure I brought my entire skincare routine.”

“Whatever, hyung.”

Hyunjin rolled his eyes at Jeongin. “Whatever, hyung,” he mocked. “You’ll be mad when you break out because you didn’t bring your 12-step routine.”

Hyunjin huffed as he strolled into the bathroom with a big bag, prepared to fit every single skin care product he had in it. He was not going to go two months without any of his babies.

“My night cream...” he mumbled to himself in English. He shoved the said bottle into his bag with ease, fitting it right in between his humidifier and face mask jar. Jisung often complained that he overpacked, but Hyunjin didn’t think so.

“Hyunjinnie~ how are you?” Changbin asked. He was at the other sink, brushing his teeth aggressively.

Hyunjin stared at Changbin for a second before he laughed, putting his own toothbrush into the bag. “I’m very bad today, hyung. It’s been a long day,” he said.

Changbin spit out his toothpaste and rinsed his mouth with water before looking back at Hyunjin. “It’s been a long day..? It’s 8:10, Hyunjin,” Changbin said, looking at his watch.

Hyunjin sighed, leaning on the bathroom counter. “Oh, definitely. Longest day of my life, and it’s not even 9 A.M. I’ve been having such a hard day, I’m going to die,” he whined dramatically.

Changbin tapped his foot on the ground for a second, making a thinking face. His slipper fell off his foot. “You know, I can buy you some ice cream later,” he suggested, looking up at Hyunjin.

Hyunjin brightened a bit. He was having a bad day, but he was sure ice cream could make him forget it. “Sure, hyung. Thanks,” he mumbled, shoving a comb into his bag. He tried to act cool about it, but he knew Changbin could see his excitement.

Changbin finished washing his face and pulled out his phone, opening Instagram. “You’re so dramatic sometimes, what would you do without your favorite hyung?” he asked, putting his phone back in his pocket and making a cute aegyo sound at Hyunjin.

Hyunjin raised an eyebrow. “Uh, I’d live better.”

Changbin gasped. “I thought I was your favorite! How could you do this to me. You know what,” he cried, putting a hand to his forehead and striking a pose, “We can’t be together anymore! I’m breaking up with you to go pack my stuff for Hongjo!”

Hyunjin snorted, hitting Changbin on the back of his head. “You wish you were dating me, hyung.”

Laughing like a madman, Changbin left the room, still trying to act hurt. He was fake wiping his eyes with some tissues he had stolen from Hyunjin. “Bye! You were the worst boyfriend ever!”

Hyunjin made a mock disgusted face. “And he calls me dramatic,” he whispered.

-

Seoul Station was as busy as ever, Hyunjin realized. He pulled his two carriers behind him, trying his best to avoid stranger’s feet. The bright signs with millions of directions managed to confuse Hyunjin more than help, and the constant smell of cigarette smoke made his head reel. It was the perfect definition of a developed city.

“For fuck’s sake,” Jisung muttered from beside him, holding his nose, “Seoul’s air quality today isn’t bad because of the factories, it’s all the cigarettes.”

Hyunjin giggled. “The air quality always sucks. It’s not just today. Actually,” he added, “Maybe we have one good day per year.”

Jisung giggled. “One good day? More like one good hour. I swear, every time I breathe my chances of getting lung cancer from secondhand smoking goes up by 10%,” he joked, hitting Hyunjin with the one free hand he had.

Hyunjin, unable to hit using his hands, just lightly kicked Jisung’s shin.

Jisung and Hyunjin hadn’t always been the closest. When they met in freshman year, Hyunjin had already lost all hope of becoming good friends with the other. The two bickered any possible place. Hallways? Yep. Bathroom? Yep. Classroom? Yep. Every day was just a competition between the two to see who could make who’s life more miserable.

One day, both of them stepped over the line. Hyunjin had ran to the bathroom to cry it out. Originally, he wasn’t going to come out, but Jisung went after him and decided to apologize. After one last exchange of quips, they decided to fix whatever relationship they had by talking it out. It ended quite well, Hyunjin thought.

Chan, coining the iconic stressed mom walk, pushed ahead of Hyunjin. His two bags and two carriers all hit Hyunjin’s legs. “Did everyone bring their phones? Chargers? Make sure you brought your clothes too! Does anyone have medicine besides me? Did you remember to turn off the lights? The stove?” Chan asked, pestering the entire group.

“No, I left the stove on and put some firewood on top of it for warmth,” Changbin said with a snort. He was only carrying a duffle bag in one hand and a backpack. “Chan hyung, we’re all, like, adults. We can do things now.”

Chan hit Changbin with his large foldable map of the train station. “You’re barely twenty, you have no right to talk! The only functional adult here is me! They aren’t even adults!” Chan cried, pointing at Jeongin, Jisung, and Hyunjin.

Changbin shrugged. “At least I’m the cuter adult,” he said, trying terribly to strike a cute pose. “Right, Jeongin-ah? From head to toe, cute Changbinnie~!”

From Hyunjin’s left, Jeongin made a face as Changbin turned around to pose for him. He awkwardly smiled and started pushed Changbin’s face away. “Hyung. I love you, but no,” Jeongin said, poking Changbin’s face.

Suddenly, Chan stuck a hand behind him. Hyunjin ran into it, pausing and almost tumbling over. A stranger gave him a look as he tripped over his suitcase. “Sorry,” Hyunjin whispered quickly. He turned his attention back to Chan.

“We’re here! Station 20!” Chan said dramatically. “A place where all your wishes will come true!”

Jisung pushed past Changbin and Chan, ignoring their protests as his carrier rolled over their feet. “Do they have food here? I want food,” he mumbled, rubbing his stomach.

Hyunjin scanned the room for a food place, eyes landing on a small convenience store. “There!” he said, pointing. “Chan pays!”

Changbin and Jisung cheered as Chan wailed in despair. “Why me? I paid last time!” Chan complained, still taking his wallet out.

“Because you’re rich?” Changbin said, phrasing it like a question.

Hyunjin snorted, poking Changbin’s arm. “Says Mr. Chandelier,” he retorted.

“Since when did a fancy light value my net worth?”

Jisung smiled sweetly, snatching Changbin’s wallet. “Since now!”

Jisung and Chan ran through the crowd, still managing to take their carriers with them. Changbin turned red, immediately running after them. “Hey! This is thievery!” Changbin yelled.

Hyunjin giggled, getting ready to follow them. As he was turning around to get his bag, he noticed Jeongin was still standing there. “Aren’t you going to follow them?” he asked, moving next to Jeongin.

“Uh,” Jeongin said, staring at his ticket. He visibly paled. “Doesn’t this say board at Station 2 and not Station 20?”

“Oh.”

“Shit.”

“Guys! Get back here!”

-

Now sitting on the train from Station 2, Hyunjin tried his best to settle into the window seat. He was tired from running to Station 2. Walking was already tiring, but due to Chan’s terrible reading skills, they had to bolt down the room. It was going to be a long train ride anyway, so Hyunjin might as well save his energy for later. Way later. The train ride was estimated to be about 8 hours long, and Hyunjin knew he did not have enough energy within him to deal with 8 hours of Changbin.

The said boy beside him was chatting excitedly with a stranger, talking about art. Hyunjin smiled. While he didn’t show it, he really admired the older. Changbin always seemed so excited whenever he was talking about something artistic or musical. One of his charming points, Hyunjin guessed.

Turning to the window to block out the noise of Changbin squealing, Hyunjin stared at the station. He might as well sleep. There was nothing else he could really think of wasting his time with.

Hyunjin carefully arranged his blanket so that it covered everything, and snuggled against the chair. It was comfortable, yes, but as soon as Hyunjin finished setting up, he suddenly wasn’t in a sleepy mood. “How annoying,” he whispered.

The train compartment wasn’t the most comfortable. After all, Hyunjin was a broke college student, and he couldn’t afford anything fancy. The seat was well used but not old or broken yet, and the small tray table in front of Hyunjin barely creaked when you flipped it open.

Hyunjin stared at his phone screen, watching the news from an Instagram account. The reporter was talking about local robberies and strange mishaps happening in the area of Seoul Hyunjin lived in. 

“Starting out a series of possibly connected crimes, a local bank was robbed. None of the money was touched, but a secret compartment containing jewels was broken in to,” the female reporter said, staring at her cue card. “Handing it over to Seungjoo.”

The male reporter took the mic and smiled at the camera. “A local forest has been completely destroyed. The police are unable to determine the substance used to damage the trees, but describe it as a strange black tar. Skeptics and lunatics are suggesting dark magic, although such a case should be impossible,” he said in a monotone voice.

Hyunjin chewed on the inside of his mouth as he watched the brief news recap. He’d heard of the forest being destroyed earlier, but to think that it had just been demolished using tar? Hyunjin frowned.

All of a sudden, Hyunjin’s phone made a loud error noise. A loud beep mixed with sounds of computer gargle. Hyunjin almost threw it at Changbin out of shock, but tried to quickly gain his composure.

A black figure appeared on his screen. Hyunjin squinted his eyes at it, trying to make sense of what it was. “News report,” it said, “You’re not safe wherever you are, Hwang Hyunjin. We’ll find you and when we do, you’ll regret that day—“

His phone died.

Hyunjin looked at his phone, now sporting a black screen. He kept trying to tell himself that what just happened didn’t... well, happen. He was a bit conflicted on how to feel. Terror or disbelief? He eventually settled on both, trying to curl himself further in his blanket. Next decision. Tell someone or ignore it?

He chose to ignore it.

Staring out blankly at the scenery passing by him in a flash, Hyunjin, in his daze to avoid thinking about what happened, suddenly remembered the dream. The vivid memories started pouring back. the dream. The stage. The lights. The whole scene started replaying in his head, but it was so distorted. Hyunjin frowned, feeling his head start to hurt. He tried to become even smaller under the covers.

The train was passing through a dark tunnel. Hyunjin felt pain in his head.

And then the memory stopped. There was that question.

That question.

“Do you believe in magic?”

Hyunjin closed his eyes. He might as well try.

“Yes. Yes, I believe in magic,” Hyunjin whispered under his breath.

Almost as if he was in a trance, Hyunjin opened his eyes. The light was growing brighter. From what Hyunjin could make out, his eyes had turned pure white. He heard nothing as he outstretched his pointer finger to touch the window.

Closer.

Closer, even closer.

Then it happened.

As soon as Hyunjin’s finger touched the window, a loud crash broke his concentration. The world slowly started falling apart. It broke panel by panel. Hyunjin frantically looked around, searching for something to grab on to.

“Ah!” he screamed, seeing the falling tiles grow closer and closer to him. Hyunjin tried to grab on to the seat in front of him, but his hand went right though it.

His panel fell.

Hyunjin was floating in darkness. There was no light, yet he could see his hands perfectly. Where am I? Hyunjin thought, trying to move around. 

He looked up to where he had been before, but saw no trace of the bright train. The whole place seemed to just be nothing.

The black thing around him functioned like water. Hyunjin immediately tried to swim through it, making farther progress than he had before by walking. The room seemed to have nothing but the thick, black substance. Squinting his eyes, Hyunjin saw a light ahead of him. It wasn’t that close, but it couldn’t be that far either.

Hyunjin pushed toward it, trying to ignore the growing heavy feeling around him. He needed to get to the light.

All of a sudden, the fear that had been growing in the back of his mind happened. He couldn’t breathe.

Hyunjin paused, trying his best to not take in water. The light was only a bit ahead of him. Just... just a bit farther. Hyunjin wanted to cry.

Bubbles arose in front of Hyunjin as he could no longer force himself to go forward. This was it. He was going to die here. Hyunjin stopped struggling, trying his best to accept his fate. Stupid, this whole thing was stupid.

It was silent for a bit, Hyunjin settling into a sense of security. His lungs were on fire, but a strange feeling made Hyunjin feel happy. Forced happiness. Hyunjin let his limbs droop more. Acceptance.

For a few moments, it was silent.

I’ll stay by your side,  
Will you stay in the same place as me?  
It’s too cold to be alone outside  
You’re here, so it’s getting warmer

Singing. Was that singing? Beautiful. The voice was soft. Sweet. Melodic. It was tempting.

I am YOU, I see me in YOU,  
I know when I’m with you,  
In the same place, at the same time,  
I can overcome anything.

Hyunjin opened his eyes again, finding himself able to take a breath. Hyunjin sighed in relief, checking his fingers to get a general idea of how long he had been there. They hadn’t turned that wrinkly yet. Hyunjin was fighting against time, he realized. He needed to make it there. Needed to reach the light.

Hyunjin tried to move. The liquid was turning sludgy now. It was difficult. Everything seemed to try and keep him there. It was welcoming him, welcoming him to his death.

Hyunjin didn’t want to die. He took a deep breathe and pushed forward. Pushed through the sludge. Faster. Faster, faster. The light was drawing closer.

It was within his fingertips. A white orb, standing on something red.

Hyunjin grabbed it, tearing it from the podium.

A loud crash.

-

Hyunjin came to, his head spinning. He was wrapped in the same blanket from the train. Looking down at his hand, Hyunjin gasped. The white orb was still there. Quickly shoving it into his pocket, he looked around the train. Had he just dreamt everything? No, Hyunjin told himself. There was no way he was just dreaming. The orb; it couldn’t have just appeared out of no where. 

Hyunjin stared out the window before gasping. Everything was different. The whole world, while it still held the same elements of his own, had more colors. There were dark blue trees outside, bearing a strange fruit that looked oddly tasty. The lake was crystal clear, and Hyunjin saw fish swimming away from a giant creature in it. 

Hyunjin looked to his side and got the biggest shock of his life. Where Changbin was sitting was a black outline shaped like Changbin. The small bunch of grapes he had been eating was still in his hand. Leaning forward in his seat to look at Jeongin, Jisung, and Chan, he saw the same thing. A black outline shaped perfectly. Chan’s outline still had his headphones, the blue jacket that was way too big for him. Jeongin’s had the rounded glasses and even the book he was reading. Jisung’s outline, Hyunjin noted, was different. It was a strange mixture of grey and blue.

He looked in front of him, expecting to see the stranger Changbin had been chatting to. Instead, there was an entirely different person in the seat. Hyunjin gasped, immediately ducking back to his seat. This wasn’t Seoul Station 2’s #0325 train. This was a whole new place.

“Holy shit!” someone exclaimed from beside him.

Hyunjin whipped his head around faster than the train was moving. Sitting there was Chan, holding a green orb. “I thought he was gonna die there,” he mumbled, clutching onto the green ball tighter.

Hyunjin let out the breath he was holding. Someone he knew was here. “Chan. Chan hyung. Do you know how glad I am to see you?” Hyunjin said.

Chan turned around, meeting Hyunjin’s eyes. He swore he saw tears of joy forming in Chan’s eyes. “You’re here. You’re here too,” Chan whispered. “I didn’t think I’d see you again when I landed there.”

Hyunjin laughed, but it was dry. “I... I was so scared, hyung. I almost drowned. But I heard someone singing,” Hyunjin said, close to tears. “It was so beautiful, really.”

Chan nodded. “Well, I—“

A loud scream interrupted their conversation. From the seat beside Chan, a figure appeared. “Please tell me I’m still alive, I’m not dreaming, I can’t be dreaming, oh dear God I fucked up, I fucked up, I fucked up, where am I?”

Chan clamped a hand over the person’s mouth to stop the screams, who now identifiable as Jisung. Chan sighed, staring at Jisung with agony. “Calm down, its not that bad. You’re not de—“

Jisung ripped Chan’s hand off of his mouth to continue screaming. “Why do Changbin and Jeongin look like that? Why does this look like the train? I know for hell I am NOT on the train! That fucking is not what he’s supposed to look like!” Jisung continued, pointing wildly at Jeongin.

Hyunjin caught sight of a black orb in Jisung’s pocket. He frowned, pulling the white orb out of his own pocket. Looking back up, he stared at the green one shining on Chan’s lap. Strange. Different colors.

Hyunjin turned his attention back to Jisung, who was having a mental breakdown over Changbin. “He shouldn’t look like that! What is he? Is that a ghost? It’s not natural!”

All of a sudden, Changbin slowly started to take shape. First, his hands, one outstretched, holding a bright pink orb. The rest of him followed, and Changbin collapsed on the ground. “Ow,” he muttered, standing up and brushing the dust off his jacket.

The group was silent for a bit as Changbin stuffed the orb in his jean pocket. “What?” he asked, staring Chan down.

“How are you not, like, the least bit panicked?” Jisung asked, his mouth wide open in awe.

Changbin shrugged. “Didn’t the person trying to kill you explain what was going to happen too?” he asked, sitting back down.

Hyunjin gawked. “Excuse me?”

Changbin turned around to face Hyunjin. “What? Didn’t some creepy voice try to kill you too? And were they like, “Oh, if you get this orb you can pass.” Was that just me?” he asked.

Chan put his hand on his forehead. He leaned forward in his chair. “Yes, Changbin, although something did try to kill me, it wasn’t some creepy voice,” he mumbled, clearly trying to make sense of the situation.

Hyunjin was completely lost. He just wanted to go back on the train and visit Hongjo, not be stuck in some alternate reality where everyone, except maybe Changbin, has no clue what’s happening.

“Jeongin!” Jisung gasped, pointing again. He was clutching onto Chan’s shoulder.

Hyunjin turned around to look at Jeongin, but instead got a shock.

Jeongin’s head came out first, but it didn’t look anything like the sweet boy they knew. It was pure black, a dripping mess of tar. His face seemed to be slightly deformed, a wide smile stretching across his whole face.

Hyunjin was not a fan of horror.

Panicking because of the situation, Jisung clutched tighter onto Chan. “That’s a fucking demon!” Jisung screeched, curling up into a ball.

Chan tried to calm Jisung down by lightly stroking his hair and rubbing his back. “I’m sure we can fix this,” he assured Jisung, staring at the demon right next to him.

Changbin tried to hide under the chair, staring at the figure emerging from the seat. “And, uh, how do you plan on doing that?” he asked. 

Hyunjin didn’t hide or look for comfort. He was frozen in place, holding his white orb.

The demon’s upper body emerged. It seemed to be some sort of weird creature, like a ghost or the Grim Reaper. It wasn’t from his world, that was for sure.

Now, Hyunjin would describe himself as a coward, but something seemed to overtake him. He wanted to hide, but he couldn’t just leave Jeongin like that. Was it even Jeongin?

‘Jeongin’ writhed around more and more, trying his best to get out of the weird barrier. Some part of that demon was definitely Jeongin, Hyunjin decided.

However, the more Hyunjin watched, the less Jeongin like the figure seemed. He needed to do something. The whole floor was covered in oil, and Hyunjin couldn’t bear to look at the disheveled state his friend was in.

As a last minute decision, Hyunjin did the only thing he could think of.

He threw the orb right at the monster, landing it straight in its claw like hands. The orb seemed to shiver for two seconds, being devoured in tar.

Hyunjin panicked again. Maybe this wasn’t the right thing to do. He didn’t know much about the orb, but he felt like something bad would happen if he lost it.

All of a sudden, the orb emerged from the dark mess. The orb cast bright white lines down the demons arm which looked quite like veins. The white spread throughout the rest of its body and spread further. 

The orb bounced back to Hyunjin, landing in his hand. It now had a small black swirl in the middle. Hyunjin stared at it for a minute and ran his thumb around it before he looked back at the figure that was Jeongin. The black case was cracking, morphing into something else.

Soon enough, a scared Jeongin tumbled out and onto the ground. He was clutching a red orb with his legs, and picked it up with his shaky hands. Jeongin took a big breath before lying back down. He huffed quite furiously, clearly exhausted.

Chan, Jisung, Changbin, and Hyunjin could do nothing but stare. No one could process what had just happened.

After what seemed like an eternity of just pure disbelief and silence, Jeongin climbed into his seat calmly. All the oil and tar from earlier had completely disappeared, melted into the ground. 

The scene distressed Hyunjin as he held the orb tighter. Millions of questions floated through his head. 

“So,” Jeongin said with a deep breath, clutching both of his armrests like he’d fall any time.

“Yeah, uh. So,” Changbin said.

Jisung remained silent, but reached over to lightly pat Jeongin’s hand. When he gave it three pats, he quietly curled back up in his chair, staring out at the window.

Chan looked like he was about to cry. His mouth kept opening and closing, until he finally got some words out. “I... I’m confused,” he managed to say.

Hyunjin, on the other hand, was also confused as fuck. The shell had just cracked and disappeared. And he hadn’t even seen the red orb or any light from it when the demon was out. Did it eat Jeongin or something?

Hyunjin exploded. “There is no way in fucking hell that just happened. What is this supposed to be? What was that demon?” he asked, almost tearing out a good chunk of his hair.

“Can we just sort out what happened in between the train and where we are right now? What was that monster anyway?” Jeongin asked. “I really have no clue either, so we might as well just start recounting our experience.”

Nodding, Changbin raised his hand as a sign of volunteering. “I can’t really remember it well since I was so scared, but I can try. It was, uh... just some weird voice talking to me. And it kept using telekinesis or something. It just kept trying to push me back as far as possible. Eventually, I had to out smart it by convincing it to let me out. I’m not sure at this point, it’s all a blur,” he murmured, rubbing his forehead. The orb in his hand glowed.

Hyunjin stared at Changbin’s orb. The bright pink made it look like frozen medicine or strawberry yogurt. It seemed to calm Changbin to hold it, however, as Hyunjin noticed the short male relax when it started to glow. After staring at it for a bit, Hyunjin started to feel calm, too.

Jisung, for the first time, seemed to know what he was saying. “They tried to, like, tempt me into staying there with... things. And then when I realized that it was bad and tried to leave, the crazy lady turned into some demon and tried to murder me. It was like Coraline but without the buttons.”

Chan raised an eyebrow. “Oh? I just had to walk across the room and get the orb. Well, not walk. Run, cause there was some crazy shit chasing me,” he said, shivering at the thought. “I’m glad it didn’t catch me.”

Jeongin nodded. “Yeah, me too. Hallway. Except I didn’t run fast enough. As you can probably tell,” he said bitterly.

Hyunjin bit his lip, shivering from pure flight. What would have happened to Jeongin if Hyunjin hadn’t panicked and thrown the orb?

“What about you, Hyunjin? What happened to you?” Jisung asked.

Hyunjin pursed his lips, thinking. “Black water that was really dense. I could barely swim through it. I almost drowned, but,” he hesitated. “Something saved me. Someone was singing. It... it was pretty,” he finished.

Changbin raised an eyebrow, shifting in his seat to get a better look at Hyunjin’s facial expressions. “Oh? Maybe the all seeing voice just wants to kill me and not you. What gender did it sound like?” he asked.

Hyunjin, trying to remember, shook his head. “It was a—“

“Boy,” Chan said, interrupting Hyunjin.

“What? How’d you know?” Hyunjin asked incredulously, staring at Chan.

Chan ignored Hyunjin’s question. Hyunjin blinked in disbelief, staring at Chan. The older had been acting weird today, and Hyunjin was going to figure out what it was. He nervously tapped his foot on the ground. Something was up.

Pointing at the screen built into the chair in front of him, Chan’s eyes narrowed in confusion. “Guys, look.” 

Hyunjin turned to look at his own screen. The blue chair in front of him had a small electronic tablet built into it. There were many options, but the current screen pulled up was the interesting one. The top read “Population” in white text. His eyes shifted down to the bottom. As he read the text, he could barely believe it.

POPULATION (UPD. 9:49:12)  
Magicians: 18,302,283  
Shadows: 1,392,274  
Humans: 1

Hyunjin read through it with shock. Why did he need to know the population? And magic? What was that? What was a shadow? Where was he? And.. one human? 

Clearly, his friends had the same reaction. “One human? What are we, then?” Changbin asked, tapping on the screen furiously.

Chan shook his head. “No, update it,” he said, reaching over and pressing the refresh button at the top right.

Hyunjin refreshed his own screen and read it again. 

POPULATION (UPD. 9:59:58)  
Magicians: 18,302,284.5  
Shadows: 1,392,275  
Humans: 3.5

Jisung piped up, “How can you be .5 of a human? Where’d the other .5 go?” he asked.

Chan shook his head, pointing at the Magician total. “There.”

Changbin shifted in his seat uncomfortably. “Not to burst your bubble but, uh, the human counter is at 3.5. And it was at one. So 2.5 of us are human,” he said, voice turning into a whisper at the end.

Hyunjin sighed, rubbing his forehead. “I don’t know about you guys, but I’m 100% a human.” He leaned backwards into his chair, covering his eyes with his hand. He didn’t feel like arguing more. With the dream and everything, his energy was completely gone.

“That’s exactly what a magician would say,” Jisung retorted.

Hyunjin sighed, turning his head to Jisung. He seemed to lose all control as a small, haphazard smile wormed its way into his face. There was nothing kind about it. A dark tint fell on his face.

“You’re the Shadow here, aren’t you?” he asked, pointing in Jisung’s direction.

Hyunjin didn’t miss the way Chan flinched.

Jeongin, clearly not wanting to fight, sighed and raised his hand to block Jisung’s face. “Let’s not accuse people right now.”

Hyunjin, regaining some control, shook his head. “Right, right. We need to figure out where we are. How do we do that?” he asked.

Jisung didn’t answer, still clearly not trusting Hyunjin. Fair game, he thought. 

Changbin shrugged. “Let’s ask one of the locals,” he suggested. He looked down the aisle for a bit before spotting the back of a teenage boy’s head. “Ah, excuse me! Can you please tell me where we are?” 

The stranger turned around with a smile. He was medium height, face clad with hundreds of freckles. His hair was a bright orange, parted in the middle. “Oh? You must be new here if you don’t know where we are right now.”

Changbin choked, face turning red. He put a hand over his mouth. “I—ah—uh, yes. You’re—uh..” he stuttered.

Chan sighed, pushing Changbin’s head down. He gave him a glare before turning back to the stranger. “What he means to say is yes, we are new. Can you tell us a bit about this place?”

Hyunjin heard Jeongin snort. “Like you don’t know,” he whispered.

The stranger (who didn’t realize that Changbin thought he was cute) smiled wider. “Yeah! This is Aurivity, or, as your kind call it, the other world. All magical things reside here,” he said, waving his hand vaguely at the people on the train. He swayed slightly.

Jisung popped up from behind Chan. “So, like, who are you and how do you know what “kind” we are?” he asked.

The kid pursed his lips, thinking of a way to answer. “My name is Lee Felix, and I’m a magician. I just noticed you all just came from the human world because the population number gave it away. You might wanna hide though. There are people who can automatically tell what you are; I’m just usually not good at distinguishing different kinds.”

Jeongin made a humming noise. “So, we’re supposed to hide? Why?” he asked.

Felix shrugged. “Humans usually just aren’t welcome here. You can trust me, though, I like humans a lot more than most people around here do.”

Hyunjin stared him up at down. “Felix” didn’t seem to be much older than him. “You don’t look that old,” he mumbled.

Felix nodded. “I’m 400. Or, uh, like... 19 in human years,” he said, counting on his fingers. “Or I’m 20. I’m honestly not too sure, time gets weird.”

Jeongin choked on the water he was drinking. “Excuse me? You’re what now?”

Felix turned to Jeongin, raising an eyebrow. “I’m 400 years old, yeah. It seems like a lot, but, really, magician life spans are long. We can also do magic to make ourselves look younger, but I don’t. I’m young enough,” he shrugged.

Hyunjin stared Felix up and down again. A magician, huh? So, unless he was dreaming, Hyunjin now had proof that magic was real. “Magic, huh?” he murmured, clutching the orb tighter.

Felix, noticing Hyunjin’s words, smiled. “Yep! My friends can too! Seungmin, Woojin, and Minho are really chill, you should meet them sometime.”

Jisung snorted. “Are you inviting us to meet your friends after knowing each other for five minutes?”

Changbin smacked Jisung at the same time Chan did. Chan stared at Felix, probably deciding whether it was a good idea to trust him or not. “How about we do meet them?” he said, carefully drawing out each of his words.

Jeongin gave Chan a crazy look. “Are you on dru—“

Felix let out a toothy grin. “Great! We’re approaching the train stop anyway. We’ll be there in... 3... 2... 1...” he counted, looking at his wrist watch.

“Passengers for Stop Eight, please exit the train now,” the voice over the intercom said.

Changbin looked around the train. “There are no doors, though?” he asked Felix.

Felix pulled out his wand with a grin. He never really stopped smiling, Hyunjin noted. “Watch this,” Felix said, holding out his black wand.

He waved it in the air back and forth, murmuring something under his breath. A bright, pink light started emitting from the wand.

In a cloud of pink smoke, Hyunjin watched Felix disappear. 

“How...” Hyunjin whispered, staring in disbelief.

All of a sudden, he disappeared too.

**Author's Note:**

> talk to me in the comments!!!
> 
> I wrote this during my 5 hour train ride,,, so it might be a bit rushed or bad.
> 
> please feel free to leave ur theories and stuff on what’s happening or who’s doing what or who’s the villain or anything in the comments,,, I really like hearing them!


End file.
